The Le Mans 24 Hours race starts a week before the race, with the traditional “weighing” for which our car was on pole .. First qualifying session : our international trio, composed of Japanese Shinji Nakano, German Jens Petersen, and French driver, Bastien Brière, is in 4th position. On Friday : the “drivers parade” in the centrum of Le Mans, an important event with a lot of spectators. In the rain this year. As the warm-up, on Saturday morning.
Fortunately, the weather conditions improve, the cars are fitted with slicks tires for the start of the race. An eventful race for our 3 drivers, but 24 hours later, our LMP2 prototype number 45 passes the checkered flag, … A great experience for our team as it was the first entry at Le Mans.
Olivier Lainé : « We have worked a lot to give a reliable car to our drivers. Our objectif was to finish the race. We will now work with all the informations we have gathered during the race. And will come back even stronger next year. Thanks to everybody ! »
Bastien Brière : ‘I have been very happy to see the checkered flag of the Le Mans 24 Hours race. It has been a great moment for the team. I would like to thank all my sponsors, partners and fans. I look forward to come back again.
Jens Petersen : “I really like to thank every team member for the big effort and dedication to finish the 2012 Le Mans race which has been the first entry for the team and for me as a driver. Everyone says that this is a difficult race but you only totally understand this once you are part of the race. In a way, it is a mixture of the very high speeds you drive in every lap and the ultra marathon distance, especially for a prototype car. But the are a lot other things you have to be so focused on, which makes it so difficult. So doing the 24h Le Mans race for the first time you learn a lot of things and yes you for sure have a benefit from this when you come back. I really liked the atmosphere of the race, the enthousiasm of the audience is outstanding ! Standing on the main straight together with the team in front of this big audience before the start of the race was a special moment. And then the driving in the night! For me this by far was the best. The handling of the car at this stage was really nice and the feeling doing 300 km/h in the dark in an open cockpit prototype on what normally is a open french country road really gave me a kick. I was really relaxed in the car and I enjoyed every single lap! I am so happy we made it to the finish of this crazy race which already is an achievement if you are at Le Mans for the first time and we even managed to do so on P10 (out of 20) without damaging the car or getting involved in some of severall accidents which the race saw. At the end I can only once again thank all Boutsen Ginion team members who did so well! Keep racing.
Source : Boutsen Ginion Racing